, choking back an impatient groan
that had almost slipped out. When the next mother came in he turned his
back on the door, but soon he was watching it again. A half-hour dragged
wearily by; then a crowd of girls fluttered through the doorway. No. 20
gazed at them listlessly until one behind slipped past the others; then
his eyes widened and his lips twitched as if they had almost a mind to
smile, for here was the pretty lady coming straight to him.

"Jim" she said, shaking hands with him just as if he had been a man,
"I've brought some of my girls to see you to-day. I hope you are glad to
see us all, but you needn't say you are if you are not."

Jim didn't say--and Rose Anderson laughed softly. Jim flashed a glance
at her, but he saw at once that it wasn't a mean laugh--just a girly
giggle, and he manfully ignored it.

"I have to speak to Charley Smith over there," Miss Laura went on, "but
I'll be back in a few minutes."

As she crossed to the other cot, Frances Chapin slipped into the chair
by Jim's--there was only one chair between each two cots. "I think you
are about nine, aren't you, Jim?" she asked.

"Goin' on ten," Jim corrected stoutly.

"I've a brother going on ten," she said.

Jim looked at her with quick interest. "Tell about him," he ordered.
"What's his name?"

"David Chapin. He's in the sixth grade----"

"So'm I--I mean I was 'fore I came here," Jim interrupted. "What else?"

"--and he's--he's going to be a Boy Scout as soon as he's twelve."

Jim's plain little face brightened into keen interest. "That's bully!"
he cried. "I'm going to be a Scout soon's I'm big enough--if I can." The
wistful longing in the last words brought a mist into Frances's eyes,
but Jim did not see it. He was looking at the other girls. "Any of the
rest of you got brothers?" he demanded.

"I have one, but he's a big fellow, twice as old as you are," Alice
Reynolds said.

"And I've six," Mary Hastings told him. "Two of them are Scouts."

"Fine!" exulted Jim. "Say--tell me what they do, all about it," he
pleaded, and sitting down on the edge of his cot, Mary told him
everything she could think of about the scouting.

When Miss Laura came back Jim's face was radiant. "She's been telling me
about her brothers--they're Boy Scouts," he cried eagerly, pointing a
stubby finger at Mary. "I wish," he looked pleadingly into Mary's eyes,
"I do wish they'd come and see me; but I guess boys don't come to
hospitals 'thout they h